Leather Lover Lunatic Asylum

Ryan and Walt were in bed. Ryan was tightly enclosed in his favorite leather straitjacket, plus leather pants. His cock, as usual, was in chastity. Walt was alongside, his arms around Ryan.

“You’ll be gone for a whole month? What am I going to do during all that time?”

“I’ve thought about that. There’s this place that you can stay at called the ‘Leather Lover Lunatic Asylum.’ You’ll be able to get your leather fetish satisfied while they keep you secure, feeding you, bathing you, taking care of all your needs. They call it a ‘lunatic asylum’ not because it is an official one, but because their guests are kept in leather straitjackets. It should suit you perfectly.”

Ryan thought about it. It sounded like just what he would want. He finally smiled and said, “You’re right. It won’t be the same without you, but it sounds like the next best thing. You know what I like. Thank you.” The two kissed and turned over to go to sleep.

When it came time for Walt to leave on his business trip, he called the facility. In a couple of hours, a white van drove up. Two beefy guys got out that were dressed in all white, looking just like attendants at a mental facility. They brought along a gurney that had a lot of straps attached to it, as well as a pile of black leather gear lying on top of it.

When Walt answered the door, Ryan was already enclosed in his favorite leather straitjacket, leather pants and boots. He’d had an enema, one of the requirements before departure. His cock was in chastity, another requirement. Walt let the pair into their house to get Ryan ready to be taken to the facility. When the pair saw Ryan already dressed, they told Walt that they had their own clothes they used, so Ryan needed to get undressed so they could put him in those. Ryan didn’t want to, but the pair said it was a requirement of the facility. Soon Ryan was soon naked except for the chastity.

Meanwhile the lead guy pulled out paperwork and said to Walt, “You had opted for the works. You’ll need to sign this waiver indicating that Ryan is to be put into maximum restraints and periodically played with.”

Ryan looked at Walt questioningly as Walt signed the paper. Walt looked back at Ryan and smiled. “I didn’t want you to be bored for your stay.” He handed the only key to the chastity lock to the attendant.

The pair first started putting Ryan’s legs into a hard, stiff pair of leather leg binders. These included room for the feet at the bottom. When Ryan was enclosed in those, he realized that he wasn’t going to be able to walk, since he couldn’t even bend his knees, let alone separate his legs. Next the pair started putting Ryan into their straitjacket. It was heavy and hard. The two were none too gentle in putting Ryan inside. The straitjacket was also obviously heavy duty. It took some time to get Ryan’s arms enclosed, through the straps, and all the buckles yanked as tight as the two burly guys could get them, including the two at the high collar. Ryan had to stick his head up high for that to be fit properly.

When they were finished, Ryan was starting to object to how tight things were, particularly over his cock, which was still in chastity. The two just ignored Ryan and used the occasion to buckle on the head harness, which included a large leather gag. Soon Ryan’s complaints were muffled. After the head harness was on tight, all the buckles closed, a leather hood with only two pinholes at the nostrils was added. After the strings on this were pulled tight to make it skin-tight over Ryan’s head, the buckle pulled tight at the neck, the two brought out a series of locks. It took time to lock all the buckles on the gear, but finally the two were ready to load Ryan onto the gurney.

The two picked Ryan up as if he were a sack of potatoes and dumped him onto the gurney. They next started pulling the gurney straps over to buckle them and yank them tight. One guy got on one side and the other on the other side, one bringing the loose strap over to give to the other guy to put through the buckle and yank closed. Soon Ryan was not going to be able to move a muscle from where he was on the leather-covered gurney. The two pushed the gurney out the door and into the back of the van, the wheels collapsing down when it was pushed inside. While one of the attendants went into the back of the van to secure it to the sides, the other attendant gave another paper to Walt to sign, one that said that Ryan had been picked up and was now ready to be taken to the facility. Walt signed, hoping that Ryan was going to like being kept so tightly contained in the hard leather. But Walt had to start thinking about getting ready to leave on his business trip.

Ryan had mixed thoughts. He was loving the enclosure in the thick, hard leather, but he was also hurting from it being so tight. He wished the chastity were off so he could get some satisfaction from this experience, but that was another one of the requirements of the facility.

The trip took longer than Ryan had expected. The facility was further away than he thought it would be. He was kept in the van for a couple of hours. Finally he felt the van come to a stop. Then after hearing a gate open, the van continued for a distance before again coming to a stop. He heard the doors of the van open behind him, and soon felt himself being wheeled out of it. The gurney was wheeled up to a door, and after the door was unlocked and opened, he was wheeled inside, the door closed and locked behind him. Ryan shivered from the realization that he was now locked inside this place.

He was wheeled down a corridor until getting to a room. He heard a key unlocking a door, and he was wheeled inside. He felt the two begin the process of unstrapping him from the gurney. After that was done, he felt himself being lifted onto a leather-covered bed. Then he started hearing and feeling the same process of being strapped onto the bed as he’d been strapped onto the gurney. Finally that was finished, and he heard the two leave the room, close the door, and lock it.

Ryan was thinking that this was where he was going to be spending the next month of his life. He tried moving, but couldn’t. Every part of him seemed to be secured. He was surprised to find that he couldn’t even move his head, and figured that there must have been a ring at the top of the hood which was attached to the bed frame. He was able to breathe sufficiently through the two little pinholes. He was excited to be in the hard leather, but didn’t get so excited as to have difficulty breathing.

He was just starting to doze off when he started hearing screaming coming from down the hall. This was followed by laughter. That got his attention, and started his imagination going. He was wondering what all they did to guys here. He realized that he was completely vulnerable to any kind of treatment that the people running this place would want to administer. This started getting him worried. That’s when he thought of Walt’s statement, that he had said to give him the works so that he wouldn’t be bored. He wondered what the works entailed.

Not long after, the door was unlocked and someone came into the room. The person first went over to another person who was there. That was the first indication to Ryan that he was sharing the room. After the person was finished with that person, they came to Ryan.

A man said, “It’s feeding time. You probably didn’t realize it, but both the hood and the gag have a small cylinder that can be removed for a feeding tube to be inserted. You will be fed a protein shake. At first you will need to regulate your breathing with your intake, but after you get used to the process it will be easy. I’ll first remove the leather cylinder and insert the feeding tube. Ryan noticed a little air coming through his mouth when he inhaled. Soon he started feeling some liquid coming into the back of his mouth, behind where the gag piece ended. He started swallowing.

He was having a little difficulty coordinating this liquid coming in with his breathing, but he soon got the hang of it. After the apparatus had been set up, he noticed that the man remained in the room. Liquid was still coming into his mouth when he heard the man go over to his roommate. Liquid was just finishing when the man came back to Ryan. Ryan felt the tube being removed and the leather cylinder being re-inserted again. This done, the man said, “Later you will be taken to the examination room where you will be checked. We have your doctor’s report, as well as your partner’s report, which is why you were brought here directly instead of being examined first, but we still need to check a few things.”

Ryan wondered what those things were that they were going to check. He wondered if that was what had precipitated the scream that he heard.

It wasn’t long before the door opened again and he heard the gurney being wheeled in. He felt himself being released from the straps attaching him to the bed, and lifted onto the gurney, again being strapped tightly to that. When he was firmly in place, he felt himself being wheeled out of the room and into the corridor. Down the hall he went until being wheeled into a room. Soon he was being unstrapped from the gurney.

After he was finally freed Ryan felt something being released from his leg binders. He also heard a zipper being raised behind his ass and started feeling an opening there. He next felt himself being set down onto a butt plug. He gasped as gravity forced it up his ass as he was set down. He also realized that the something that was released from his leg binders allowed his knees to bend. He was soon being strapped into a chair that he was sitting on. In a few minutes the two guys who had gotten him were finished and left the room. Ryan tried moving, but found that he was tightly strapped to the chair. He also was noticing that the butt plug was touching his prostate.

Ryan had to wait like that for about a half hour before the door opened and someone walked in. He felt the strap holding his head in place being removed, as well as the one holding his neck in place. He heard the ‘click’ of locks and felt his hood and gag being removed, before the straps holding his neck and head in place were buckled back. But Ryan could now see and speak, though he couldn’t move his head.

Ryan decided to wait and let the guy speak first. After setting down the locks, head harness and hood he’d removed, the guy turned to Ryan and said “hi Ryan. My name is Doctor Van Doren. I will be giving you your examination. I hope you’re getting adjusted to your new home for the coming month?”

“The first thing I want to check is your ass. You’re sitting on a special kind of butt plug. It lights up and has a camera inside so that I can see what your inside looks like. You won’t feel anything, but I’ll just activate things over at the screen here. You can watch as well if you want.”

Ryan had never seen anything like that before, and was curious to see. But it wasn’t much of anything to look at, just a picture of the inside of his asshole. It looked pretty stained from his bowel movements. After the doctor turned the screen off, he said “things look normal there. You’d obviously obeyed our instructions to take an enema. Let’s take a look at the inside of your mouth.”

Ryan opened, and with a little flashlight, the doctor started looking here and there, poked a bit, and finally said “also normal.” He went over to a form he’d been reading and said “your partner told us to give you the works. That means having a plug always up your ass as well as having clamps on your tits. Did you discuss this with your partner beforehand?”

“No. This all came as a surprise to me.”

“So you don’t know what we will be doing to you while you’re here?”

“No, sir. I haven’t a clue.”

“Hmm.” The doctor went back to what he was reading, and finally said “your partner said you like to be surprised, so apparently he doesn’t want us to tell you. Very well. You’ve got the plug up your ass, which removes from the chair. So the next item is to clamp your tits.”

The doctor brought out some small circular items which had a loop at the back. He unzipped the coverings on the straitjacket over the tits, each having a zipper on each side, and screwed the clamps on Ryan’s tits. He zipped the coverings closed up to the clamps. Next he got a wire which he put through the rings at the outsides of the clamps and brought the two ends around to Ryan’s back. The wire had some serrated edges on one end and a place for that end to go through, as zip ties do, and he yanked it tightly closed. This started putting pressure on Ryan’s tits, and he gasped. The doctor then came back to the front and started screwing the clamps in more, this time eliciting a scream from Ryan. The doctor started laughing, and said “don’t worry. As your stay here progresses we’ll be tightening them more. Now to test your reactions to these .”

The doctor put his hand to the side of Ryan’s neck above the belts from the straitjacket and started looking at his wrist watch. He finally said “heart rate normal, considering the clamps. Your medical report said your blood pressure was normal, so I don’t need to check that. I guess you’re ready to return to your room. Open wide.”

Ryan was surprised to find that the doctor put a ring gag into his mouth and buckled it closed behind his head. Next he put that leather head harness with the big gag back on, putting the leather penis part through the ring gag before locking the buckles, and finally the hood, pulling the strings taut, and buckling and locking it on. After replacing the straps to connect Ryan’s head and neck to the chair, the doctor said “the plug also has one other little feature. I’ll keep you here for a couple of hours while you get to experience that.”

Suddenly the plug started vibrating. Since it was touching Ryan’s prostate, this meant that it was vibrating that as well. Ryan had never experienced something like this before. He was getting really turned on, but being in chastity, there wasn’t anything he could do about it. He quickly forgot about the pain coming from his tits. It was quite a ride, one in which, strapped as he was, he couldn’t make any movement to respond. But his eyes were wide-awake from that. It was definitely sending enjoyable feelings, but he was so frustrated at not being able to respond. The sounds he was making into his gag voiced his frustrations.

When he was finally removed from the chair and strapped back onto the gurney after the plug had stopped vibrating, he was wide awake as he was taken to be strapped back to his bed. He had no thoughts about falling asleep. He now thought about the ring gag, which was used to force a guy’s mouth open to have it available for someone to stick their cock in, and the plug up his ass, which was used to keep a guy’s ass stretched so that when it’s removed a guy could stick their cock in. He figured that both were going to be utilized while he was here. But it would have to have been listed as one of the items included in the ‘works’, so Walt would have known about it.

Ryan thought about the many times he had pleasured Walt this way. Suddenly while lying on the bed, the plug started vibrating again. Ryan had thought that this was only something that got activated while sitting on the chair, but obviously that was not the case. This time the vibrations were at a slower level, ones that started to send Ryan into a dream-like state, thinking about some of the porn flicks he and Walt had seen together.

Ryan awoke some hours later. At first he didn’t remember where he was, and he had difficulty understanding why he couldn’t move. Then he remembered. He was pretty well rested, so he figured that he’d spent several hours sleeping and that it must be the next morning. He tried stretching his limbs, but quickly realized that wouldn’t be possible. He was going to have to wait for someone to come get him. At home, he’d been kept like this before by Walt overnight, so it wasn’t a new experience. He waited, his thoughts drifting off again to bondage scenes.

He started hearing sounds of someone unlocking and entering rooms down the hall. Finally someone came into his room. It was the feeding guy. After he’d had his fill and the leather cylinder put back, it was time to wait until the next event. After a while he started hearing the sounds of someone entering the rooms again. This time the person stayed longer. It took some time, but finally the guy entered Ryan’s room.

He first went to his roommate, and took some time hooking something up. Then he came to Ryan. “Hi, I’m Erin. My job is to exercise your muscles. Since you’re unable to move while in that leather cocoon, I do that by attaching wires to the suit over various muscle groups and starting an electrical current which causes the muscles to contract or expand. This replicates a good workout of your muscles.” Ryan felt something being done over various parts of his body, and soon felt his muscles reacting. He was thinking that this was an interesting way of getting exercise while being bound. He wondered about getting something like this set up at home. When the guy was finished, Ryan was feeling like he’d just done a workout. He had to admit that he was impressed.

The guy worked his way down the corridor. Soon after he’d finished and wheeled his apparatus back, Ryan started hearing the sound of doors being unlocked and guys being wheeled in gurneys to another place. Finally it was time for Ryan and his roommate. His roommate went first, but the gurney was back and Ryan was removed from the bed and secured to the gurney.

Ryan was taken to a larger room. His hood was removed so he could see. Ryan was again strapped to a chair, much as he was to the one in the examination room. As he was being strapped, he looked around and saw that this was a viewing room with a large screen at one end, with others strapped securely to chairs, also dressed in leather as he was. He counted about 20 guys. For the first time Ryan wondered how much Walt was spending to keep him here. He figured that it wasn’t cheap. It made him appreciate Walt, realizing that he was willing to spend that much to satisfy him while Walt was gone.

His thoughts were interrupted by the lights dimming and a picture coming on. It was a porn flick which emphasized bondage. This first one was one he hadn’t seen before, and it was followed by others, some of which he had seen. The overall quality of them was quite good, keeping him and the others there on edge, so to speak. There were only two interruptions for feeding. So the bulk of the day, probably ten hours worth, was spent in this viewing room.

At the end of the viewing, the attendants came into the room and formed a line. One by one the attendant at the front of the line went up to one of the residents and started removing the head harness. After it was off, the attendant would lower his pants and bring out his erect cock. Others would wheel a special tray which was in the room and put it over the resident’s lap. Then the attendant would get up onto the tray, kneel down, and start working his erect cock into the resident’s mouth through the ring gag. Eventually he would shoot while everyone watched. Then it was the turn of the next attendant. When the attendant was finished, he’d pull his pants back up, strap and lock the head harness back on the resident he’d shot into, strap and lock the hood back, and with the help of another attendant, the one at the back of the line, would unstrap the resident from the chair, strap him to the gurney, and wheel him to his room. All this was done while the next attendant was having at the next resident of his choice.

Being the new guy, Ryan was one of the earlier ones picked. When Ryan saw the size of the attendant’s cock, his eyes opened wide. It was larger than Walt’s, but not that much larger. He was easily able to satisfy the guy, having had lots of experience with Walt. Afterwards the attendant smiled and said “If you’re available, I’m going to want you again.” Later, while in bed, Ryan felt pleased about getting a compliment, but wondered if this was a daily routine that would be followed. Suddenly he felt the plug vibrate again. He was soon lost in a dream world before he fell asleep.

The next day, after the morning feeding and exercises, Ryan’s hood was removed and replaced with a different kind. The affect was similar, although this one also cut off his hearing. But soon Ryan realized that it was one of those new Virtual Reality devices that let you be part of whatever you were viewing. What Ryan was viewing was, naturally, more bondage films, and being included as a part of them, Ryan enjoyed them much more. He was disappointed when the meals arrived and he had to be removed from his viewing. This went on until bedtime. The next day he was back in the large room viewing bondage porn flicks, followed by cock servicing. The day after meant back to the Virtual Reality again. And finally Friday he was back in the large room.

The weekend was when the rough play began. After the usual breakfast and exercise routine, he was, as usual, strapped to the gurney and taken to another room. But this time it was a different room. Ryan was unloaded and laid on the floor. His arm sleeves were then loosened. They were brought up behind his back, and slowly pulled, the left sleeve over the right shoulder and the right sleeve over the left shoulder, bringing his arms ever higher behind his back, until his wrists were alongside each other behind his neck in a reverse-prayer position. The leftover sleeves were then wrapped around his neck, pulled taut, and finally tied off.

The sleeves around his neck didn’t bother him, since his neck was already covered with thick leather. It was his arms which were pulled uncomfortably way up behind his back that were bothering him. He was trying to move to relieve the pressure, but one of the attendants was sitting on his back to prevent that. The attendant unzipped the covering over his ass and removed the butt plug. He then stuck in his erect cock. As he was pumping it in and out, he reached around to the tit clamps and started screwing them tighter. This caused Ryan to experience even more pain than his arms and shoulders were giving him. Finally the attendant shot his load into Ryan’s ass.

After the attendant pulled his cock out, he inserted an even bigger butt plug. After it was inserted, the attendant pushed a button which caused the plug to expand. Ryan’s yelling increased. After the covering was zipped back up, two attendants picked Ryan up and carried him to a box, which they placed him in, resting on his back and arms. It was barely wide enough for him. It was also lined with leather. They locked the straps on the sides to hooks that were at the sides of the box. They also locked the ends of the sleeves to hooks at the sides of the box, and the ring at the top of his hood to a ring at the top of the box. Ryan tried to move, but couldn’t. Next Ryan heard them drop a lid onto the top of the box, close the clamps attached to the lid, and attach locks to the clamps. When Ryan would take a breath, his chest would encounter the lid which seemed to also be covered in leather. Ryan wondered how long he was going to be kept in this box in this extremely uncomfortable position. Suddenly the new plug started vibrating. But this time it was not pleasant, but punishing, pushing dull spikes out in all directions.

Ryan could hear others who were also yelling, ones who were brought after him into the room. He wondered if they were getting the same treatment he was, or something different, something he would later experience this month. He was thinking back on that old expression, ‘first comes the pleasure and then the pain’. That was certainly what he was experiencing at this facility.

Soon Ryan started getting hot in that box. He hoped that there were air holes, but he couldn’t tell. The heat continued to build, combined with the painful vibrations in the butt plug and the newly tightened position on the tit clamps. Ryan was sweating in the suit, even though he couldn’t move a muscle in it. He wondered how long he was going to have to spend in this box.

After a few hours, Ryan was removed from the box and laid down on the floor again. It was only for a repeat of the earlier fucking. At least Ryan was glad to get that punishing butt plug out from him. The guy’s cock was a big improvement over that plug. But the respite was only temporary. After the fucking session, Ryan was soon back in that box again as he’d been before, the punishing plug back in. The only difference was that the tit clamps had been tightened a little more.

Ryan got very little sleep that night while in the box. He was surprised to find that he was kept there instead of being taken to his bed. The next morning he was finally removed from the box. But it was just for another fucking session, as well as having his tit clamps tightened even more. Afterwards, the nasty plug was back and he was back in the box again. Ryan was getting tired of this. It wasn’t enjoyable for him.

There were two more fucking sessions before the enjoyable plug replaced the punishing one and his arms were let down. His tit clamps were also removed, which was not necessarily a good thing at first, but after time the pain finally started to subside. He was strapped to the gurney and taken back to be strapped to his bed again. Later, he was fed, the first feeding he’d gotten since the previous morning, and later still, the plug started vibrating again. Ryan was soon off in a pleasant dream land.

That set the pattern for his stay at the facility. He had four weeks of that pattern, followed by a couple of days of mid-week normalcy. He had fallen into a pattern of this being his life. When it was time to be checked out of the facility, the move out was just a reverse of the move in. After the two attendants had wheeled Ryan into Walt’s home and removed him from the tight leather, one of the attendants gave Walt a form to sign that Ryan had been returned, and soon the two attendants had gone.

Ryan could finally walk again, though he had difficulty doing so after being immobilized for a month. Walt came over to him, and they hugged. Finally Walt asked the question he’d been worried about while he was gone for the month on business. “Ryan, did you enjoy that place while I was gone?”

Ryan had been expecting the question, and had been wondering whether he really did enjoy that experience. There were parts he loved, like the Virtual Reality sessions and the vibrating plug. But there were also parts he didn’t like, notably the weekends with that punishing plug up his ass and his arms brought up painfully behind his back. Then he thought of Walt. Ryan thought about how much Walt had spent on this, and looking at Walt’s nervous expectation of his answer, he realized that he couldn’t disappoint Walt. He finally said “yes, I did. It was very much over the top, but I think I would like to experience that again if the occasion arises.”

Walt let out a deep sigh, and said “I’m glad. I’ve been worried that it would be too much. I thought you would like it, but I wasn’t sure. So having experienced that, would you like something like that at home?”

“Sure, why not. I wouldn’t mind stepping things up a bit from what we’ve been doing. And it would be with you.”

“Okay. Wait here a minute.” Walt went to the door. After he opened it, Ryan saw that the men were still there waiting. Walt waved to them, and they came back in.

Ryan just stood there with his mouth open. He was wondering what was going on, and whether they would set up a Virtual Reality session here. The two attendants brought their gear back in and quickly started putting Ryan back into it, starting with the head harness and gag, which was a much larger one. Ryan had been looking forward to finally getting out of all that gear, as well as having the chastity off so he could finally eject after that month, and now he was starting to be put back into the gear again with no prospect of the chastity being removed. He tried yelling, but with that bigger gag, only a little sound emerged. The attendant saw this and smiled devilishly, expecting this reaction.

Meanwhile Walt had gone into their playroom to prepare for the additional gear. The two attendants were busily putting Ryan back into the leather clothes, including putting the butt plug in. They brought his arms up behind his back as they had done before putting him in the box, yanking and tying the sleeve extensions around his neck. They temporarily stopped gearing Ryan to bring in items for the playroom. Ryan’s hood was not on yet, and it was when he saw the box being brought into their house that he tried hardest to yell into his gag.

One of the attendants saw that and started laughing. He turned to Walt, who had just come into the room, and said “he really enjoyed being put into that box. I’d recommend keeping him in there all the time when he’s here. And you don’t have to remove the gag from him. It was kept there all during his stay at the facility. I’ll explain how to feed him through the gag. I’m sure he’ll enjoy his life more being kept this way, won’t you little buddy?”

Ryan’s eyes were wide open and he was trying to shake his head back and forth, but couldn’t as the attendant had a firm grip on his head as he was putting the hood on it, forcing his head to nod up and down instead. Ryan was no match for the beefy attendant. With the hood strings pulled taut, Ryan’s sight was removed for the last time in many years.

He heard Walt say “I’ll do everything you recommend. I just want to do what Ryan enjoys. I’m surprised that he likes having his arms pulled up behind his back like that, but then we never tried anything that extreme.”

It was after Ryan was locked tight in the box with the lid shut and locked that he realized that the plug up his ass was the painful one. He also heard the attendant say “and be sure to periodically tighten those tit clamps. He liked those as well. Your agreement with us is for us to come over on Friday nights and take him to the facility to give him some much-needed exercise, returning on Sunday nights. I’ll give you the keys to the lid so you can feed him, but you won’t be needing keys to the other locks.”

The attendant had apparently brought out another paper to sign, because Ryan heard Walt say “where do I sign?”

After a pause, he heard Walt say “with my new business assignment, I’m going to be spending most of my time away from here, travelling constantly, so I’ll be needing to keep him in that Leather Lover Lunatic Asylum most of the time. I was sure glad to hear him say that he liked it there. I’ll let you know when to pick him up for the long stay, though I won’t know when to have you bring him back.”

He heard the attendant say “we enjoyed having him. We could see that he enjoyed the more extreme treatment, but we just got started with that. There’s a lot more we will be doing that’s even more extreme. He will obviously enjoy that. We’ll make sure his stay is not boring.”

Ryan tried to move, but couldn’t, other than having his chest hit the leather-covered lid when he breathed. That’s when the butt plug kicked in. He’d tried to scream, but that new gag muffled any sound. He was starting to sweat at the realization of what his life was going to become, in addition to the realization that the chastity was not going to be coming off and the gag was not going to be coming out. He was surprised to hear that Walt was going to be going away, and realized that Walt was doing this because Ryan had told him he enjoyed his stay at the LLLA. He realized he was going to have to convince himself to enjoy it. But the butt plug increased its strength at that point as he heard the attendant explaining a device he was giving Walt. He found his screams again heavily muffled so as to be unheard.